drug market interventions

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drug market interventions
Using Strong Community Partnerships,
Intelligence, and Focused Deterrence to Reduce
Violent Crime in High Point, North Carolina
NCLM Annual Conference, October 25-27, 2009
Major Marty A. Sumner
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The Setting

• Street drug market is toxic to neighborhoods.
  There is a direct nexus between street level
  dealing and violence.
• These neighborhoods are known for years as a drug
  and prostitution market.
• They are the target of numerous and regular
  undercover operations or stings.
• Despite numerous arrests the situation persists.
• Over time the community has lost faith in the
  ability of police to impact this problem.
• People are afraid.

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The Street Dealers

• The pressure we apply through law enforcement
  does not equal their day to day risks.
• They expect to be robbed, they expect to be
  arrested, JUST NOT EVERY DAY.
• Selling one dose at a time, to people they do not
  know, in competition with others, keeps them
  armed and on edge. (assaults, armed robbery, home
  invasions)
• They take the communitys apathy or indifference
  as approval.
• They must be brought to a MOMENT OF CHOICE.

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Theory and Concepts

• Drug Markets versus the Drug Problem
• Small numbers of drug dealers
• Nonlinear market dynamics
• Formal sanctions matter but should be minimized
• Informal sanctions matter most of all
• Norms, narratives and persistent misunderstanding
• Help matters
• Vital hidden common ground

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Strategic Intervention

• Directly addressing norms and narratives
• City-wide strategy with beachheads
• Careful identification of all players
• Identifying influentials
• Focusing services
• Creating formal deterrence banking cases
• Beachheads maintenance
• Direct communication with dealers

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Logic Model
Resource Delivery Community Support Phase
Identification Phase
Notification Phase
Community and Police Dialog and Discussion of the
Strategy
Identification of Target Geographic Area
ID of Individuals Operating in Target
Area Undercover Buys
Police Focus
Eliminate Overt Markets Reduce Drug and Violent
Crimes
Notification Session Call-in
Community Focus
Immediate Prosecution of the Most Violent or
Dangerous
Community Police Home Visit
Resource Coordinator
Notification List Compiled
Source Dr. James M. Frabutt et al., at The
Center for Youth, Family, and Community
Partnerships at the University of North Carolina
at Greensboro serving as the Project Safe
Neighborhoods Research Partner for the United
States Attorneys Office, Middle District of
North Carolina. Supported by PSN funding (Award
2002-GP-CX-0220) through the U.S. Department of
Justice, Office of Justice Programs.
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Operational Steps

1. Crime Mapping
2. Survey
3. Incident Review
4. Undercover Operations
5. Mobilize Community
6. Contact with Offenders Family
7. Call-in / Notification
8. Enforcement
9. Follow Up

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2003 All Layers Combined Density Map
Daniel Brooks
West End
East Central
Southside
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Step 2 Survey

• Survey police officers, probation officers, vice
  officers and community members to identify
  dealers
• Identify locations as well as persons
• Create master list of dealers and locations from
  the surveys
• Small number of dealers in each area
• West End 26
• Daniel Brooks 21
• Southside 25
• East Central 36

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Step 3 Incident Review

• Vice/Narcotics detectives conduct a complete
  incident review of all dealers
• All reports, contacts with police and
  intelligence are examined through link analysis
• The list of offenders is refined to include only
  the street dealers based on the review

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refining the list of dealers

• Is the dealer still active? In this area?
• Street level or mid-level?
• History of violence?
• Pending charges?
• As many as ten were dropped from each master
  list.
• Our final list for each area included

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Step 4 Undercover Operations

• Each location and offender is investigated
• Drug houses are photographed
• Undercover purchases are made from individuals,
  each buy is videotaped with audio
• The investigation requires only a judges
  signature to make the arrest

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Step 5 Mobilize Community Commitment

• City Council members, the Mayor and the City
  Manager are briefed
• A series of public meetings are scheduled in the
  target area
• Strategy shared fully with the community Is
  this something you will support?

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Step 5 Building Community Trust

• Building community capacity and leadership
• Acknowledge that traditional enforcement tactics
  were not effective and caused unintended harm to
  community
• Community has to set the social standards for
  their neighborhood
• Promises have been made and broken
• Focus on new way of doing business and
  reconciliation

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Step 6 Contact With Offenders Family

• Identify influentials
• Small groups of Officers, Community members and
  Clergy visit immediate family members of the
  offender
• Explain goals, invite family to participate
• Join in asking offender to quit
• Family encouraged to attend call-in
• Letter from Chief

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Step 7 Call in/Notification

• Face-to-Face notification with offenders,
  community (HPCAV) and law enforcement (VCTF).
• Strong community voice youre ours, youre
  doing wrong, you need to stop and well help you
  
• Law enforcement delivers a two pronged message
• Drug dealing and violence will no longer be
  tolerated
• Offenders are hereby put on official notice
  you could be arrested now, you will be arrested
  if we know you are back at it
• Through a resource coordinator they are offered
  community-based help

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Citizen Group (HPCAV)

• HPCAV 501c3
• Weed and Seed
• Public Defender
• County Schools
• Sickle Cell Disease Assoc.
• Community Development
• Guilford Community College
• Batts Consultants
• Central Carolina Legal Services
• CHILDWATCH
• Family Services
• Crisis Womens Shelter
• United Way

• HP Regional Health System
• Guilford County Mental Health
• ASK
• Employment Security Commission
• Adult Protective Services
• Alcohol Drug Services
• Numerous Ministries
• HUD
• High Point University
• Center for the Study of Social Issues
• Caring Services
• All State and Federal Law Enforcement

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Step 8 Enforcement

• Officers and Community are careful to watch for
  the first signs of drug dealing
• Immediate investigation of drug complaints
  additional officers are assigned to the area for
  the first few weeks
• Informants revisit confirmed drug locations
• Any complaints involving a notified offender
  result in the warrants being signed and their
  arrest
• District Attorney assigned one prosecutor to
  these cases

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Step 9 Follow Up

• Follow up contact is made with offenders to see
  if they are getting the help they need
• Community members are encouraged to keep in
  contact with notified offenders. Mentors are
  assigned
• Newsletters / Flyers to the community contain
  information of arrests or success stories
• Officers attend community watches in the area
• Property owners notified of nuisance abatement

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Quantitative Analysis
Notification / Call-in
100 Days
150 Days
200 Days
250 Days
300 Days
Etc
365 Days
Etc
365 Days
300 Days
250 Days
200 Days
100 Days
150 Days
Pre Call in
Post Call in
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Violent Crime Change West End Neighborhood
Decrease over 4 years 57
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Drug Crime Change West End Neighborhood
Decrease over 4 years 25
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Changes in Crime Over the Last 565 Days in West
End
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Fifteen Year Analysis of Violent Crime City-wide
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Qualitative

• Markets closed overnight!
• Bible school attendance up at English Road
  Baptist Church
• Calls for service increased 5 but type of calls
  has shifted
• 911 caller on homicide has change of heart,
  converts from reluctant witness
• Defendant complains he cannot provide substantial
  assistance
• No homicides, rapes, or gun assaults in target
  area since the call-in
• Sustained for over 4 years, replicated in Daniel
  Brooks, Southside, East Central neighborhoods

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Tracking Notified Offenders
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Communication With Community

• Maintain the hyper sensitive lines of
  communication with the community members and
  leaders
• Published a single contact number for police
  allowing citizens to report activity
• Newsletter for continued updates
• Flyers informing new members of the neighborhood
  about the initiative
• Attend neighborhood watch meetings

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Contact with Offenders

• Helping to keep the pressure on, reminding them
  what behavior we will not tolerate, they know
  they are not forgotten
• High Point Community Against Violence
• Through the Resource Coordinator
• Community Outreach Officers
• Probation Officers
• Assigned to mentors
• Notification of offenders returning from prison
  to the neighborhood

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Communication With Beat Officers

• Assembly room bulletin board
• MDT messages
• Bi-weekly meetings
• Supervisors on opposite rotations responsible for
  coordinating activity
• Intranet Blog

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Immediate Response To Threats

• Major case review of all Part 1 offenses
• Immediate response to drug complaints
• Personal notification to residents of complaint
  location, flyer and strong message
• Attempt consent search knock talk
• High visibility disruption of business
• Undercover buy and search warrant
• Response to prostitution

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Monitoring Physical Conditions Of The Neighborhood

• Vacant houses reported to Inspections and boarded
  up
• Insufficient street lighting reported
• Trash removed
• Unkept yards
• Graffiti covered over or removed
• Condemned houses demolished

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Outcomes

• Focused and data driven, seen as fair by the
  community (redeemable)
• Not a traditional police crackdown, community
  regains faith in police, community capital
• Results were immediate
• SUSTAINABLE
• Shares responsibility for community safety with
  the community and holds the offenders accountable
• Decrease in violent crime was substantial
• New mutual understandings and racial dialogue

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QUESTIONS?
Major Marty A. Sumner Chief of Staff High Point
Police Department 1009 Leonard Ave High Point, NC
27260 336-887-7817 marty.sumner_at_highpointnc.gov